Animez un peu

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff where a slight quickening begins; it is a gradual change that lasts until a new tempo word, a cédez or an a tempo checks it. In songs it usually appears in the voice and piano together.

How Composers Use It

A mild push forward — the French equivalent of poco animando. It suits the rising middle of a phrase or a stanza where the text grows more urgent, and it is easily reversed by cédez. Because the amount is small, it works best where the harmony or the line already leans forward; marked on static music, the change sounds arbitrary.

Example

Debussy, Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire, “Harmonie du soir”, voice, m. 14: “animez un peu”, in a song headed “Andante tempo rubato”; “a tempo” returns at m. 17.

Related Terms